Infertile Partnersʼ Coping Strategies Are Interrelated – Implications for Targeted Psychological Counseling

Abstract

ABSTR ACTBackground Infertility patients often have high stress levels which, in some cases, represent a risk of developing depression or anxiety. The SCREENIVF questionnaire is a validated tool to evaluate such risks. Some coping strategies have been shown to be correlated with infertile couplesʼ levels of stress. Determining which strategies are correlated with higher levels of risk for depression or anxiety could be useful to offer targeted psychological counseling to reduce the risk of depression or anxiety.Materials and Methods A total of 296 women and men who attended the Fertility Center at Heidelberg University Hospital completed the SCREENIVF questionnaire and the COMPI coping scales.Data were analyzed first on an individual basis and focused on the couple, using the Actor Partner Interdependence Model.Results On an individual level, active avoidance coping was positively correlated with a higher risk of depression or anxiety in women, while meaning-based coping was negatively correlated with risk in men.When the results of couples were viewed together, women and men using active avoidance coping exhibited higher risk scores as individuals (actor effect), as did their partners (partner effect). Women who used meaning-based coping had positive actor and partner effects.Women using active-confronting coping had a negative partner effect (higher risk score for men).Conclusions These findings indicate that some coping strategies may have a protective effect while others may increase the risk of emotional maladjustment in infertile couples. Further analysis of coping strategies could help to identify new counseling approaches for infertile patients.

Spirituality, infertility‐related stress, and quality of life in Brazilian infertile couples: Analysis using the actor‐partner interdependence mediation model

“…In the present study, women's and men's spirituality was not directly related to their partners’ quality of life, partly in contrast with previous couple‐based findings indicating that women's use of meaning‐based coping strategies had a protective effect against their partners’ risk for anxiety and depression (Volmer et al, ). However, we found that this relationship was completely mediated by one's partner's infertility‐related stress.…”

“…The direct positive effect found in this study was consistent with a growing body of evidence that spirituality is associated with higher quality of life in women and men with chronic conditions (Czekierda et al, ; Mishra et al, ), and in infertility, also a chronic condition (Gourounti, Anagnostopoulos, & Vaslamatzis, ). In a recent study of infertile couples (Volmer et al, ), a similar beneficial effect of meaning‐based coping strategies on quality of life in women was found, although the same effect was not found in men. In the present study, the relationship between spirituality and quality of life was also partially mediated by individual infertility‐related stress.…”

“…In this study, we focused on spirituality as one of the meaning‐based strategies people use to cope with stressful life events (Folkman, ). Previous dyadic studies (Peterson et al, ; Volmer et al, ) instead considered meaning‐based infertility‐specific coping as a broader set of strategies, which included, in addition to spiritual beliefs (e.g., believing there is a meaning in difficulties in having children), positive reinterpretation of the infertility experience (e.g., thinking about infertility in a positive light), revised goals (e.g., finding other life goals), and the infusion of ordinary events with positive meaning (e.g., find the partnership even more valuable now; Schmidt et al, ).…”

“…Spirituality has been associated with quality of life in several chronic conditions (Czekierda et al, ; Mishra et al, ; Salmoirago‐Blotcher et al, ). Meaning‐based coping processes, including spirituality, affect infertility‐related stress (Domar et al, ; Peterson et al, ; Volmer, Rösner, Toth, Strowitzki, & Wischmann, ), and infertility‐related stress has a negative impact on quality of life (Galhardo et al, ; Kim et al, ). Nevertheless, the relationship among spirituality, infertility‐related stress, and quality of life has not yet been investigated in infertile couples from a dyadic perspective.…”

“…In studies using a dyadic approach, the relationship between meaning‐based coping strategies and infertility‐related stress seemed to vary according to gender. Indeed, the use of meaning‐based coping helped infertile women reducing their own and their partners’ infertility‐related stress and risk for developing anxiety and depression (Peterson et al, ; Volmer et al, ). On the opposite, men's use of meaning‐based coping increased their own and their partners’ infertility‐related stress in the social domain (Peterson et al, ).…”